The final meeting of the Geological Society of Minnesota for 2023-2024 is the Spring Banquet at U Garden Restaurant. Click here to follow link. , 2725 University Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414, (612) 378-1255, near the East Bank U of MN campus. This is the same location as the Fall Banquet held in September, 2023. The restaurant is on the north side of University Ave SE, east of 27th Ave SE.  Map  There is a free parking lot behind the restaurant.  

The banquet starts at 5:00 PM. No reservation or registration is needed. We recommend the buffet, which is priced at $19.95 + tax & tip. Hot tea and other beverages (except water) are extra. Ordering from the menu at the posted price is also an option. To make payment easy, we encourage everyone to plan to pay using cash. The restaurant does not accept checks.

You may come for just the lecture, skipping the meal if you wish; however we encourage you to enjoy the meal also, as the restaurant appreciates our business in return for hosting this event.  

Following the banquet, around 7 PM, will be our final lecture of 2023-2024. As with all GSM lectures, this lecture is free and open to the public.

Lecture Summary: Sands from around the world vary greatly in both their rock, mineral and biogenic content. Other samples contain grains that record past industry and commerce. This talk will highlight different locations with Leo Kenney’s sand photographs. We’ll talk history, geography, geology, marine biology and identify grains. Locations include: 1) Madeline Island, Wisconsin; 2) Wells Creek, Tennessee, 3) Coos Bay on the Oregon Coast, 4) Haverstraw, New York on the Hudson River. Plus a couple of other locations. 

Biography: Kate Clover retired in 2016 after 26 years at the Science Museum. She served as a program manager and the geo-science educator. She developed interactive activities for exhibits and linked exhibit themes to cultural and natural resources, geology, flora and fauna, foods, and history. She also developed the Collectors’ Corner, a trading post where kids of all ages could bring in objects from nature (i.e. rocks, shells, bones, sands, insects), earn points for their knowledge and object, then use those points to get other objects. She also curated the sand collection.

Kate considers herself a life-long learner and loves doing deep-dive research projects. Many of her project involve sands, something she’s been interested in since childhood. Kate loves looking at sands under the microscope (a vintage American Optical stereo zoom scope) and figuring out what the grains are and what story the grains are telling about the local and regional geology, marine ecosystem, and native history and modern industrial history. 

She is co-author of the Splendid Sands Calendar. Together with Leo Kenney (photographer and graphic designer), Carol Hopper Brill (marine biologist and writer) and herself (geologist and writer), they publish the calendar. From the calendar project’s inception in 2008, their goal has been to illustrate the beauty of sands and to explain the science, history and geography behind the samples. 

Kate also writes for and edits the Geological Society of MN Newsletter, plus she serves on the board. She is also assistant editor for the International Sand Collectors’ Society Newsletter. 

Kate has a BS in Geology and Technical Writing from Michigan Tech and a MS is Science Education from UW-River Falls. She studied Marine Science through Clemson University.